Fire Forged
by Emily-Of-Midgard
Summary: -An Omega Ruby Nuzlocke- The story of a girl who cannot speak, a Torchic who cannot hear, and an adventure to stop the end of the world.


The gym was one of the plainer that Professor Birch had seen. The main room appeared to be a simple meditation room with a few scrolls plastered on the wall. The only source of light was the large bay windows that let pure sunlight stream in.

He wondered idly if Norman had not had the chance to unpack everything. Then again, from what he knew about Norman, this plainness seemed to match his personality. He had not known the new gym leader for very long but from what he had heard, he was a rather blunt man who did not like to beat around the bush. His gym seemed to reflect his personality.

The man himself was sitting on the floor in front of the windows. He looked to be deep in meditation but Birch had barely opened his mouth to speak when Norman spoke.

"Good evening, Professor. I hope you did not have any trouble getting to Petalburg."

"Oh no, no trouble. My son Brendan has been wanting to go to the city for a while now. Unfortunately, our work rarely allows us a chance to come here. He's on the outskirts of the city even as we speak, looking at the Surskit population." Birch said rapidly, his nervousness causing him to ramble. He had never been at ease with gym leaders. It was partly why he wanted to go into scientific studies.

"Hmm," Norman said as he got to his feet. He turned to face Birch and he seemed to study him for a moment. "You are a father? I did not know that."

"Yeah," Birch responded. "Two kids, Brendan and May. Twins. You got any kids, Norman?"

"I do," Norman said as he walked over to a small door off to the side of the door Birch had entered. "And that is partly why I would like to talk with you. Please, step into my study." From Norman's tone, his suggestion was more of an order.

Birch followed Norman into his study which was much messier than his gym room. "I am sorry for the mess," Norman said as he removed a box from the spindly chair that sat across from his oak desk. "I have only just moved in, you see. I wanted to get the gym up and running in case there were any challengers but in doing that, I have neglected work elsewhere."

"It is fine, really," Birch said with a wave of his hand. He glanced at the unsteady looking chair and decided it was better to stand than to risk falling. "What is it that you would like to talk about?"

"You give out Pokemon to starting trainers, right?" Norman said, pointedly dodging his question. He was staring at a photo on the desk.

"Yes, I do. I am the Pokemon Professor for the region. Why?" Birch responded.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to help me and give a Pokemon to my daughter. She's moving from Johto tomorrow with her step-mother and I think she would benefit from having a Pokemon."

"Of course I would consider giving her a starter Pokemon," Birch said with a jovial grin. "But there was no need to go to all this trouble, Norman. All you need to do is file a form with me and I'll give her a randomly generated-."

"No." Norman said finally. Birch's smile froze on his face.

"I'm…I'm sorry?"

"She will not have a randomly generated Pokemon. She needs to have one specially selected." Norman explained.

"Norman," Birch said. "If you expect me to bend the rules for a gym leader's daughter…well, I can't do that."

"It's not about that!" Norman yelled suddenly. Birch flinched, jumping back from the desk. Norman stared at him for a moment, a wild look on his face, and then seemed to force himself to be calmer. "It's…It's like this. My daughter…she has some issues."

"What do you mean by 'issues'?" Birch asked, feeling awkward.

Norman let out a sigh. He leaned forward on his desk and ran his fingers through his black hair. He suddenly looked tired. "A few years back, I took her to the gym I ran back in Johto. She adored Pokemon back then. She was just a kid. I knew that I shouldn't have done it but she and I never had much in common. So when she said she wanted to go, I took her the next day."

He stood up at the desk and walked over to the window. "There was a trainer that came. He really shouldn't have made it past the trainers. He tried his best but…it was a bloodbath. All the fail safes failed and he lost his entire team right then and there. Every single one."

Norman placed a hand on the glass of the window. "It was so commonplace for me that I did not even think about her. She saw everything. Every last death and every last injury. She watched it all. And when I finally remembered she was there, it was too late. She was quiet on the way home, but that made sense. It had been awful. Then she was quiet during breakfast. That too made sense. But when the school called demanding to know why she would not speak, I knew something had gone horribly wrong."

He turned to look at Birch, his face incredibly stressed. "She hasn't spoken in three years, Birch."

"Oh man…" Birch said in a sympathetic voice.

"They say she can't. The specialists we took her to see, that is. They say it's called 'Conversion Disorder'. She saw something awful and now she can't speak. And since that day, it's like she's…not there. She lives but it's like she's going through the motions. She's lost and my wife and I have no idea how to reach her."

"How can I help then?" Birch asked.

"She's been ambivalent towards Pokemon ever since the incident even though she's shown no interest in going on a journey. My wife and I wanted to give her a Pokemon as a moving present as well as a way to help motivate her to get out of this funk of hers. However, I was wondering if you had a Pokemon that would be able to take her disorder into account. Something that would be able to work with her and help her but would understand that she can't train it in the normal way a trainer would. Do you have any starter Pokemon like that?"

Birch thought for a moment, a hand on his chin, and then he snapped his fingers.

"I have the perfect one." He responded.

* * *

><p>AN- Nuzlockes are fun. Let's see how this goes.<p> 


End file.
